What possessed the Traveling Quilter
to get aboard a tour bus and visit thirteen local stores in two days’
time? It could only be the Greater Atlanta Quilt Shop Hop.

In previous years, we have “hopped”
in a variety of ways, usually involving tearing out to one or two shops
after work on Thursday and Friday and then cramming in as many as we
could on Saturday. Things have been a little better since the shops
started opening on Sunday, too. Metro Atlanta is a big area, so when
we had the opportunity to leave the driving to someone else, we decided
to jump at the chance.

Blessedly, the Saturday of the Hop
dawned sunny but chilly. Roughly thirty intrepid quilters gathered at
Intown Quilters, organizers of the bus tour. Shop owner Sarah Phillips
got the party going with bagels and coffee, and of course, our first
opportunity of the day to buy FABRIC. Fabric, the driving force behind
the whole concept of the shop hop, was why we gathered to make this
pilgrimage in the first place. Sure, books and notions are great, but
mostly it’s all about the fabric.

The bus took a while to get going.
First, the hoppers had to finish buying stuff at Intown, and then the
bus driver had not gotten the itinerary or directions from his employer,
so Sarah had to rectify that. Other bus delights included our driver
trying to turn a huge bus around on a hilly country two-lane while half
the local populace watched. You can imagine how much fun this guy had
being the chauffer for a bus load of opinionated women!

It took me some time to “get with
it” and let the experience take me. I just browsed at Intown, which is
my “home” store. (We all have one, I realized after listening to our
bus companions talk with each other about which shop was “their”
store.). Before 9 am I had made my first mistake of the day: not buying
some fabric I liked at Sarah’s. But I was barely awake, even with all
the wonderful brights at Intown to chose from!

The first day was getting to know
the other passengers, getting directions mixed up and getting off and on
the bus a lot of times. Although the time allotted for each stop was 45
minutes, of course it took longer. I almost didn’t go on Day Two. Day
One was so tiring, I was getting shopped-out and I was going to be by
myself without Rob on Sunday. But after a night’s rest (the bus didn’t
leave until 11 on Sunday), compulsion took over and I was right back at
Intown.

By Day Two, the sisterhood had
formed. People brought quilts for en route show and tell, and it was
much more social from the get-go. I sat with someone who was without a
ready-made companion, and took some ribbing about Rob having dropped out
because the pace was too much for him! People had learned the drill, and
had brought what they wished they had on Day One. Women who had taken it
slowly on Day One began to become part of the fabric frenzy and it was
generally much more of a group experience. So much so that when one
quilter announced that she had just made her first fabric purchase
without knowing what she was going to use it for, the whole bus
applauded!

Without taking you up and down the
bus steps and in and out of each stop individually, here were the
highlights as I saw them:

Ladies on the bus: We were a broad
demographic, ranging from mid-twenties up, of varying ethnicities,
tastes and experience with quilting. There were several mother-daughter
teams, some sister sets, quilting buddies and one couple (us). One woman
had flown in from New York to hop with her sister. Guilds represented
from the Atlanta area were Brown Sugar, Phoenix, and Intown.

Hop theme: Springtime in Georgia.
Each store had a different aspect of spring as their theme. It would
have been good to print that on the “Passport,” so perhaps it would have
been easier to tell what each store was trying to portray.

Best interpretation of theme: Really
a three-way tie.

Heritage Quilts in Newnan was a
standout with their wedding theme: Bridal gowns of the staff were
displayed in the window, wedding pictures were placed all around,
everyone wore bridal veils and lace-embellished white T-shirts.
Cupcakes, mints and nuts with homemade punch (complete with floating ice
mold) were truly reception-worthy refreshments. Add to that an hourly
bouquet-toss for a door prize and a cake constructed of Styrofoam and
caulk, and well, you get the idea. Beautiful job. Not to mention that
this unique store had lots and lots of fabulous reproduction fabric!

“Easter” at Quilts and Fixins in
Jonesboro was not to be forgotten either. Proprietress Jeanne and
her family always do Shop Hop to the max. Standing in her rabbit suit
and bunny slippers, she presided over the egg hunt (plastic eggs were
hidden throughout the store and could be redeemed for a prize). Staff
all wore bunny ears and there were lots of baskets stuffed with fabric,
Easter themed fat quarters and many, many seasonal projects on display
in the back room and throughout the store. Mr. Rabbit adorned each
goodie bag and there was carrot fabric as well!

Last stop of the day was not a
disappointment either. Although we were pretty tired, Sweet Home Quilts
hit a home run with their baseball spring training interpretation.
Crackerjack was in each goodie bag, Staff wore baseball caps and
hand-crafted baseball-shaped nametags. Atlanta Braves shirts adorned the
walls, and each room was marked as a base. The room with the register
was home plate!

Best story of the Hop: One woman had
driven back to Newnan from Buford (rumor was it was an 80 mile
roundtrip) to buy fabric she has seen but not purchased the day
before.)

Above and beyond moment: One of the
bus riders missed the bus at Intown. At the first stop, Fiber on a Whim,
some 15 miles away, Sarah Phillips appeared with the tardy quilter in
tow. Now that’s personal service.

Overheard but too good not to
repeat: “Of course you have to buy fabric you don’t plan to use right
away. Some fabric has to season.”

“My rotary cutter worked just fine
until my husband used it to trim wallpaper.”

“I give many of my books to the
local library and let them be my storage space.”

“I am not going to sign up for a
class for the rest of this year. I have started at least 15 projects and
I have to finish some. I might buy a new pattern, but I won’t take
another class.”(Other passengers then got clarification. The top had to
be done, but not necessarily quilted to count as finished!)

Power shoppers: There were several
hoppers who came to the bus with a mission. One had just moved and
temporarily stashless, was about to take seven classes on consecutive
days.

Another had focus: Stripes

Others just wanted something for a particular project and brought
swatches with them.

At the beginning of the second day,
an impromptu survey circulated on a brown bag. Total yardage for day
one: Over 370 yards—but that was only the yardage to which we would
admit. At least one shopper had inched toward a 100-yard total!

Best serendipity: Little European
Bakery, right next to Fiber on a Whim. Yummy pastry and lovely unusual
decorations. Also, Hiram’s antique store, that had nice old feed sack
quilts, some super old cameras, where we made our second buying mistake
of the day by leaving a wonderful specimen for someone else to find.

Oh, and seeing our friend (and star
of Quilter’s News Network) Jodie Davis at Tiny Stitches in Marietta
doing a demo of paper piecing. Jodie’s smile can light up a room in an
instant, and her cute projects made standing in line to have our
passport stamped fun.

Test driving: Red Hen Quilts in
Marietta let hoppers take their huge Handi-Quilter out for a spin. They
also offer lessons on the long-arm and let quilters rent time once they
have had the basic training. Red Hen also has two cute shop mascots,
hound Sandy and poodle, Cookie.

Shop with the most interesting
assortment of products: Patrick’s, which is part seed and feed store,
part quilt store. Where else can you find small animal traps, bulk
candy, cheddar cut from a huge block, and bolts of fabric all under one
roof?

Going the extra mile: Stitch N Quilt
staye open way past closing time to accommodate a tardy bus load of
shoppers who arrived well after 7 p.m. They were as gracious as though
we had shown up first thing on Saturday, even though the staff must have
been exhausted. This shop is always beautiful and full of wonderful
quilt things, but they really went above and beyond to be sure we got a
chance to visit their store.

Most artsy and most likely to get a
lot of money from me in the future:

Fiber On a Whim. This store is very
over-the-top, not your grandmother or mother or even sister’s quilt
store unless she went to Berkeley. The block of the month is a mixed
media journal by Patti Maderis Culea that I know I will have to do
someday. Think embellishments and yarn and fabric dyes and needlefelting
and WOW!

Best relocation: Quiltin’ Time in
Holly Springs. Their new historic house gives a whole new dimension to
the experience.

Most fun purchases not related
directly to quilting: the PigTail turning fork for turning meat without
releasing juices (www.pigtailff.com) and the Dyna-Disc which forces
correct posture while you sit.

Several great parts of the Hop that
must be mentioned but don’t really fit a category exactly:

Special dogwood design shop hop
batik fabric in several colorways was a clever option for a hop
souvenir.

All the beautiful Hop flower quilt
blocks and all the different interpretations of how to use them in a
quilt.

The arrangements made by Intown and
all the hard work to keep the hoppers happy while hopping. Huge thanks
to Sarah, not only for her efforts but also for running one of the
coolest shops EVER. A trip to Intown always lifts my mood, not just
because the colors are so lush, but because her staff is always so
pleasant and helpful.

Exhausted. That’s the only way I can
describe how I felt, even two days after I got off the bus for the last
time and staggered to my car.

But I’m glad we did it. Taking the
Hop Bus with twenty some women we had never met was an incredible
experience.

But it wasn’t over yet. Monday I got
a call that I had won the door prize from Quilt Station in Hiram! Since
that necessitated a trip back out to Hiram, it seemed only fitting that
we call the antique store and arrange to pick up the cool old camera
that had caught our eye as well. I mean, if there was ever a clear
signal that something was meant for us, this had to be it.